


Exploring Bending

by sldlovestv18



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: But it’s like offscreen, Character Death, Firebending & Firebenders, Fluff, Gen, Major character death - Freeform, The others are also there but they don’t do much, Zuko (Avatar) is a Good Parent, and a bit of angst, theres a lot, zuko is a good bender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29985609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sldlovestv18/pseuds/sldlovestv18
Summary: Some snapshots of Zuko exploring his bending and using it in unconventional ways.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 41





	Exploring Bending

He’d been thinking a lot about what he’d learned from the dragons. It was a lot, and he wasn’t the smartest, so it’s taken him a few weeks of meditation to really start to absorb it. That had caused problems in itself, because once he took on the enormity of what the dragons told him with what his Uncle had told him about the elements and the kingdoms being connected, Zuko ended up having an existential crisis and staring at the ceiling for hours. Now, he was ready to start to think about how he could apply it to bending. He spent most of his time not training Aang or trying to get in with group doing training. Mostly building his muscles back after losing them while on the run in the earth kingdom, but also practicing advanced techniques that he wanted to teach to Aang. Now, he decided that he could also experiment with his bending. Now, he knew that deviating from didn’t stop you from bending, it just changed the specifics. This was easy for him to except because Azula had been modifying her form to be more efficient since she started bending. 

He decided to start with meditation. Meditation was important to fire bending, a thing that was becoming more lost in firebending as time went on. Air bending and fire bending were similar in that way, the best fire benders were Sages, and the air benders were monks. All elements were important to life, but air and fire are the most flexible and difficult to control, as well as the most all consuming. Firebending was all about energy and life, and was thus found everywhere heat or light was, and able to be made from within. Air is as all present as energy and heat, and just as impossible to capture. Water and earth can be held or contained, fire and air are more finicky, so it makes sense that spirituality and understanding of the world was so important. Thus: meditation.

Sitting down, and closing his eyes, he focused his bending. Fire was energy, light, life, he should be able to reach out to it. He reached out which his chi, breathing evenly, and then, after what was either a few minutes or nearly an hour, it clicked. His mind was being given a rough, fuzzy image of the area around him. As the light faded as it went further into the temple, the image got fuzzier. It reminds him of how Toph says earth sense works, though it was likely clearer with how much sturdier earth was. Wherever light was there was a glow, and when it reached objects it changed. Different things were giving off different levels of glow. Light objects, like stone, were difficult to perceive, the glow around them being just barely lighter then ambient light and very fuzzy. Meanwhile, his supplies and his shirt were reflecting back strong, absorbing more light and not letting it go. It wasn’t and light. It was so... weird, this map of light energy and heat. 

Then Zuko remembered something he’d hear of past fire lords do. Heat control. Absorbing and redirecting primarily, though most of those technics were lost after Sozin’s time. The only person Zuko ever saw make gear without fire is his Uncle. So, he grasped these points he saw with his chi within a certain radius of himself, and with a breath, gave it a little juice. The area became much brighter. Then, he pulled it in with an exhale, and the area became colder. He released it, taking a minute adjust to the energy around him returning to normal. 

On the boarder of radius light reached in his light heat sight a big blurry blob of energy entered. It was brighter towards the center and moving. A person, probably, by the size. 

“Zuko!” Sokka yelled from a few yards away, walking up just as Zuko realized that. “It’s lunch time, man, if you don’t come and eat Katara is going to think you’re up to something.”

Lunch, already? Time flies when you are exploring your element. 

“Coming.” He got up, following Sokka as he turns quickly around to leave. 

Like Sokka said, Katara was irate he was late. He tried to assuage her temper and claims that he was scheming or hated her food, but only had limited success on account of today didn’t seem to be a strong one one for his language skills. Some days he’s very articulate and smart, others he’s an bumbling moron who trips over his words. Just one of the joys of being him. His language tutors hated him. Anyway, while he was sitting at lunch, he decided to try and use his new heat/light sensing with eyes opens and wow was it weird. It was like an overlay over thing, glowing like before. The fire pit was a bright glare, he could tell how long the others had spent in sun because the longer they were out, the more heat their clothes absorbed-

“What are you doing!?” Katara’s voice broke his concentration. 

“Huh?” Very articulate, Zuko. 

“You’re pupils shrunk to the size of a pin and you’ve been staring at us for ten minutes! It’s creepy, man.” Sokka complained. “And worse, your letting your lunch get cold! What a waste of meat.”

“Sorry, I was just working on something.” Zuko sighed, face flushing red. The former prince looked at his cooling stew, brows knitting together as he used his hands to heat it till it was steaming again. “It wasn’t anything dangerous-“

“Wow, I didn’t think you could use firebending to heat up food!” Sokka leaning closer to Zuko, making the bender lean away. “With how explode-y most of your bending is, I didn’t think it could be gentle like that. Could you reheat my food sometime?”

“You’d have to not scarf down your food in under a minute for me to do that.” Zuko gave him a withering glare. The group burst into snickers, except Katara, who was clearly the must amused but hiding it best she could. 

“Rude.”

“Could you show me how you did that? I haven’t had time to try out any gentle firebending.” Aang’s eyes were sparkling with anticipation. He also hadn’t used any firebending outside of practice, because despite what the dragons told them it still made him nervous, but Zuko wasn’t going to call him on it.

“Gentle bending won’t help you beat my father.”

“But-“

“You can learn gentle firebending once my father is taken care of.”

“But-“

“No.”

“I really-“

“Hot squats!”

“What!?”

“You wanna firebend so bad? 20 hot squats!”

“But-“

“Argue and we can add 15 fire lunges for every badger-frog croak we hear!”

As if they heard them, two croaks were heard in the distance. Aang sighed, starting his squats as Zuko ate his food. Toph was laughing, teasing Aang, while Katara tried to glare Zuko to death. 

The staring was forgotten.

#############################

His experimenting was really helping him understand why the elements bent the way they did, and what Uncle had told him about the nations and their elements. Using air bending forms he’d seen Aang use was the easiest for the most part. Because fire and air were so similar and feed into each other in ways other elements didn’t, they worked best together. Too well, actually, which was problem. The looseness of air forms made flames large and wild. He could control them loosely, but lesser benders wouldn’t be able to. The combat use of it would be limited till he had better control. Earth bending forms were tricky, because they generally did one of two things, cause flames to race across the ground or cause bursts of flame so powerful they had knocked him over a few times. It wasn’t a surprise, the footing for stronger fire katas were sturdy like earth bending. He would have to work on it. 

Water was a pain, though. The energy of fire was erratic, so the sort of concentrated energy movement that waterbending used was difficult and generally made flames dissipate. He was trying to think of a work around. Lightning reflection used waterbending forms because lightning was concentrated energy. He wasn’t capable of generating it, but maybe he could work around that.

He started out with a series of rapid fire katas, making a fair amount of flames before focusing of maintaining them with quick, swooping moments. Back and forth, back and forth, using something like the forms street performers use. Then he focuses on the heat and energy, trying to pull it together. Slowly, it came together, looking closer to dirtless lava or plasma with each swoop to the side. It was then that he started to switch to waterbending forms, and to his joy it stayed and followed his motions. It was moving just like water, he could work with this. 

Then a bird being chased by Momo flew into the back of his head, broke his focus and caused the thin trail of liquid fire to explode into flames.

################################

Being back in his family summer home made him cranky on good days and made him want to puke and cry on bad days. He didn’t think he could get away with burning more things, like the last time. The gaang had been kind enough to let all his remarks about what a shithead his father was and how crappy his childhood was slide. They weren’t prying, because they really didn’t have time to unpack that, but if he started big bonfire of precious family mementos they might start to ask questions. So, he decided to train even harder because that was really the only coping mechanism he was good at. It had worked his whole life, might as well stick with it. Katara got a little freaked out when she caught him doing aggressive pull ups in a tree, but he could live with that.

While it’d be a several years before he’d use most of his new forms in battle, they were getting fun to work on. Focusing on heat and light and energy and all that junk was slowly becoming instinctual, making it easier to play with them. He’d started using earth bending to heat the ground to high temperatures, he could even see using the technic in spars soon. In a few years he might even be able to make lava! But it was work with heat that would get the most use. It will do wonders for keeping people at a distant. He might even show the others what he was working on with heat. 

“Hey, guys, what’s up?” Zuko asked as he strolled up to the fire they had set up for the night. He then sensed the tense atmosphere and saw Katara and Aang crowded around Toph. “What’s wrong?”

“Toph and Suki went exploring since you and Katara had Aang for training. She fell in a cold underground cave lake. Suki got her out, but she’s come down with a bad fever.” Sokka pressed his lips together in a tight line. This had to bother Sokka. If there is one thing Zuko knew about Sokka, he was protective of his people.

“I blame my stupid parents.” Toph complained, and yeah, she sounded awful. He walked closer, seeing her flushed cheeks and sweaty face. “I can handle anything in the dirt, but because my crazy parents kept me sheltered I’m vulnerable to dumb stuff like this.”

“I know what you mean.” Zuko cringed. He was a bit of sickly kid, but because he was so isolated it hardly mattered. It was just another thing that made him inferior to Azula and her caste iron immune system. The first year and a half on the Wani he got sick every time he got off the boat. By the end of the second year, he finally toughened up. “One time when I was fourteen, I was chasing a farmer who had claimed to have seen the Avatar through the woods and I fell in a creek. I was bedridden for a week.”

“When I was ten the same thing happened to me... without the chasing stuff.” 

“Toph, save your energy. I can’t treat fevers with water bending, and these herbs aren’t working. If we don’t you want to to get worse, I need to go get a few things from town.” Katara stood and Aang got up with her.

“I’ll come with you! Buddy system.” Sure, Aang, Buddy system. The fact that you’re in love with Katara has nothing to do with it. Zuko rolled his eyes and sat next to Toph.

“Let’s get packed.”

“So, you were the sickly type.” Toph looked barely awake, but she was too stubborn to rest this early. Zuko smiled. 

“Yup. Sickly, clumsy, stupid, that was me. Short for my age and a terrible bender. I had to work like maniac to try and keep up and my sister still beat me at everything.”

“What happened?”

“Spent three years on a boat. Two years in, I guess the salty air finally kicked in and I grew a foot in six months and put on fifteen pounds of lean muscle.”

“Nice. Think that will happen... to me?”

“Maybe.” Zuko chuckled. He took a look at Toph’s red face and sweaty hair and was suddenly assaulted with a vivid memory of himself. Young, with only his Uncle to keep him company as he sweat out a fever. It was the first time he had gotten sick since he was burned and he was having horrible flashbacks. Maybe he could do something...

He hovered his hands over Toph, sensing for heat. His chi wrapped around the heat energy pulsing in Toph and pulled, drawing it out until he was she was about normal. He released the heat into the air and Toph sat up.

“Hey, I’m all cooled off!”

“What!?” 

“How’d you do that!?”

“Was that firebending?” Aang gasped, walking in with Katara.

“I’ve been experimenting with heat bending, I thought...”

“Firebenders can heal?” Katara was more then a little confused. 

“Yeah! I heard about this when I traveled. Whenever there was crisis situations and the nations agreed to all lend aid, the water nation would send healers, the air Nomads would send our medics to help people breath and move wreckage, and the fire nation sent people who specialized in heat bending to lower fever in the injured after the water benders were done.”

“Heat bending has fallen out of medical use, or any use, really, we use medicine now, but I thought it might work.”

“You figured out heat bending by yourself!? That’s so cool!”

“Not such a bad bender now, huh, sparky?” Toph smirked.

“Just let me know when it comes back.”

###############################

“So, Nephew, what happened? Last time we spoke before all this, I told you about your great grandfather, and you stopped visiting me in prison.” Iroh smiled at Zuko as they prepared tea for the Avatar and friends.

“I went to teach Aang firebending. I realized I made the wrong decision in Ba Sing Se, and that father is an evil manic who didn’t deserve my love or loyalty. So I told him off to his face, went to break you out of prison too late, and went after the Avatar.”

“I knew you would make it eventually. I just thought I might have not gotten to you in time, and you wouldn’t snap out of it until it was too late, like I did.” The older mans eyes flashed with sadness, which was how he knew he was thinking of Lu Ten. 

“Uncle...”

“It’s okay, I got a second chance, didn’t I? I saved the city I tried to destroy, and the son I found in you is the Fire Lord. Can’t get much better then that.”

“Yeah.”

“So, teaching the Avatar...” Iroh smirked and Zuko groaned.

“It was terrible. I’m not good at explaining things like you, and Aang is so easily distracted. He has such a hard time summoning fire. Plus he had such bad experiences with fire that even after we went to the masters at the Sun Temple he was skittish about it.”

“So, you met them.”

“They gave us the secret to Firebending.”

“Wonderful. No doubt, you will become a better master then I’ll ever be.” 

“Me?” Zuko lifted his one brow and projected as much disbelief as could.

“Yes, you. You have all the passion and drive of a Royal and the creativity of your actor mother. You’re already a master, you will undoubtedly get better as you age. Creativity is important to bending, and you have it in spades.”

“Really?”

“Really, you just have to embrace that part of yourself. You have a long way to go, but by the time you are my age, you will undoubtly be one of the best fire masters since Roku’s time. And you’ll have worked harder for it then anybody else.” He smiled. “You’ll have to show me what you are working on sometime.”

“Thank you, Uncle. I’ll do that.” The soft smile on his face didn’t disappear for a long time.

###################################

She was so small. Izumi was four months old, but she was still so small. The healers said she was actually on the long side for a baby her age, but he didn’t believe it for second. She was smallest thing in world besides turtle-ducklings. The most precious thing in his world since Mai passed away two weeks after she gave birth. She got an infection in her uterus post birth, they couldn’t save her, but she fought hard to spend those two weeks with their child. And now he was alone with her. He knows that the council didn’t like how much time he spent with his child, instead of leaving her with a nanny. He showed up to a meeting with Izumi in a pampoose strapped to his chest and he thought the general on the council was going to have a stroke on the spot. He didn’t care. He wanted to raise her as much as he could, she deserved better then him so least he could do as try.

In recent years he hadn’t practiced much gentle bending. He was more focused on mastering more advanced, destructive bending, but it was coming in handy with the baby. Heating bottles, blankets, and sometimes whole rooms if he was feeling over protective that day. It was so delicate it increase that he used, that it was almost as difficult as controlling massive amounts of fire and creating dragon fire. By far the hardest was what he was about to do. Izumi was fussing, and the best way to calm her was to apply the slightest heat to his fingertips and rub her belly. He felt the his body heat, the fire that kept him alive, focusing on the tips of his fingers and applying the smallest amount of power into them he could, barely warming them. He started rubbing little circles with each finger on his hand, into Izumi’s pudgy baby tummy and and she calmed down immediately. Zuko smiled. She looked so much like her mother when she was content. 

The sound of something thudding against his window startled him out of his trance of adoration. Keeping both hands firmly on Izumi for protection, he turned his head, glare intense, ready to breath fire, when he realized it’s just fucking Aang.

“One day you’re doing to drop by my window and you’re going to end up with a knife to the chest. I don’t want me or my guards to kill you, please just use the door.” Zuko rolled his eyes as Aang climbed in the window, going back to to rubbing baby tummy.

“When come in all official like, they warn you and make you get all dressed up, and you act all uptight and leaderly for hours before we can calm you down.” The air bender shrugged. “Katara is watching Appa right now, he’s tired from flying here, so she’ll have him bring her up in a bit.”

The group had always done surprise visit at least a few times a year between official meetings. Zuko was guilty of it too, though because of his position it involved a lot more lying about how long it took to get places and how long he’d need to be there. When Mai got pregnant, the visits kicked up. When she died they stayed with him the first couple weeks. In the three months since then, it was pretty common to have at least one member drop by for a couple days every week or two. They were watching him. He didn’t really blame them, but it was getting a bit annoying.

“I act all leaderly because I’m a leader.”

“Details, details.” Aang strolled over. “I spied with my eyes before I crashed that you were looking all thoughtful at Izumi. She giving you special baby wisdom?”

“No, just being adorable.” He gazed down at her. Her cheeks puffed in that why they did everytime she saw her Uncle Aang. He wanted to pitch them. “I don’t think baby’s have wisdom.”

“Well, you would know better than me. You spend a lot of time with her.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You don’t have to do this alone though, you know you can call any of us up, well besides Toph maybe, and we would take her for awhile.”

“I trust you guys with my life, but I’m not sure leaving the only heir of the fire nation throne to a bunch of people with no children or child rearing experience is great idea.”

“Hey, Katara has child rearing rearing experience. She helped her village raise the young when she was growing up.” Aang then looked conflicted, with a look that Zuko recognized as conflicted. He squinted his eyes at the Avatar. “And plus, we- Katara and I- well- look, we aren’t- no, wait, uh...”

“Aang.”

“You gotta promise not to tell anybody.”

“I promise, now what-“

“You won’t be the only one parenting in the group! Katara is pregnant!” Aang grinned, bouncing on his toes. “It’s actually why we wanted to visit, to maybe get baby practice- we weren’t going to tell you, though, because it’s really early. She’s going to kill me.”

“Aang, that’s great.” The smile on the young fire lords face was one of his rarest looks. Relatively broad and barely awkward. He reached over and gave the younger man a side hug. “You and Katara should be great parents.”

“You think?”

“I do. You are Katara are some of the kindest people I know. That’s going to to be the luckiest kid in the world.” The smile shrank to its regular awkward form. “So, you want some baby practice, huh?”

“Yeah. Growing up in the temples, everybody took care of the babies, but I left before I reached the age the started teaching us and incorporating us into child rearing. They don’t even teach you to hold a baby till you are fourteen because air benders bend from birth, so you need to be able to hold them tightly and carefully.” Aang looked sheepish, shoulders hunching in a way that looked ridiculous now that he was an inch taller then Zuko and just broad. “I know how to not drop a baby, but that’s about it.”

“I can help you out.” Zuko promptly slide Izumi right into Aang’s arms, and true to his word, he had a decent hold. Katara probably had him help around the villages, including helping new mothers. “Here you go. Be careful, she’s fussy today.”

“Is there something I can do?” A spark of distress popped in his eyes when Izumi started whine and squirm. Her face was turning red and Aang looked like he was about to stroke out himself.

“I think it’s time you learn some gentle firebending.” Zuko smirked. “You probably would have learned by now yourself if explored your fire like you did you’re air.”

“Dragon wisdom doesn’t erase trauma.”

“Tell me about it.” If it wasn’t for the trauma his father inflicted on him, he’d have probably mastered his bending quicker then he was. “Right, so remember how fire is heat, energy, life, light, and all that?”

“Yeah. I’m really glad we talked to the Dragons before my journey with the Lion-Turtle, because it made energy-bending easy to handle. I figured if I bent energy like water can bend blood or how you got Toph’s fever to go away, I could take away bending.” Which was smart of him, but it was under cut by him catching a tiny, ravioli sized baby fist to the chin. “What about it.”

“Alright, reach out with you’re chi, feel for the heat, the fire that’s made made by your body.” Zuko said, doing it himself.

“Alright... yeah, I feel it. It’s so weird. Fuzzy, pulsing.”

“Now focus on your fingertips and push a bit of chi in with firebending. Just touch, like feathers.” 

“Right.” Aang nodded and Zuko reached out further, using his heat sense to see how hot they were. 

“A bit less.” And it went down. “Good, now rub her belly, each finger in a circle at once.” 

“She’s calming down.” The last air bender, at least for now given the pregnancy, smiled down at Izumi, who was is fact calming down.

“You’re a natural.” 

“You’re a good teacher. Probably the best one I had. Don’t tell Katara, but you reminded me of the monks, just louder and angrier, it made you a good teacher. Toph was too rough, Katara was too soft, you were just right.”

“I kind of want to tell Katara, it’d drive her crazy.” 

“Please don’t, she’s been very emotional. Yesterday she saw a really cute Fox-Cat cub and she got so overwhelmed with emotion her waterskin exploded.” Aang smiled big when when Izumi let out a little coo. Zuko didn’t blame him, that was coo number six, her third cutest noise behind small sneeze and big yawn. “You said our kid is going to be the luckiest kid in the world, but I think they’ll have to fight Izumi for that position.”

“She deserves better than me.” Zuko’s face turned sullen, and Aang frowned. He knew Zuko still struggled to find his peace. They didn’t talk about it, but they all knew.

“Zuko...”

“She’s so precious and pure. She deserves better than an ex-villain, someone with so much bad history. Izumi deserves the best, who is... not me. But we are all each other really have. I’m the only parent she has, and she is the only heir to the throne we have.” He ran a finger from her brow ridge down her nose to the tip, making her close her eyes. “Someone without a scary facial deformity, maybe.”

“I thought you’re scar didn’t bother you much anymore.”

“That was before...”

“Zuko, Izumi is lucky to have you. You might have a temper, but you’re sweet and understanding under all that brooding. You aren’t anything like the last few Firelords. You’re like your Uncle, just slightly more awkward.”

“But-“

“But nothing- I don’t even think you were ever evil. Just traumatized, mislead and angry. Everything you’ve done since the Day of Black Sun has been done with good intentions. Even when you took Katara after the man who killed her mother. She tries to hide it, but she wishes she could have gotten anything out killing him, so she would have done it. The fact that he’s out there bothers her, even knowing what an empty person he is. I still don’t approve, but I understand why you did it now.”

“She could do something about the person who hurt her in a way I couldn’t, because if how complicated it was. I just wanted to give her the chance. I thought she deserved as much.”

“See, even if that’s messed up, it’s still kind. You are kind, at your core. That conflict between good and evil in you? I think it’s just... trauma. I’ve talked to lots of the past Avatars and Spirits, and they don’t care about destiny, they just want to do the things they think are right. Being the Avatar isn’t destiny, it’s just happenstance. When the Avatar dies, the next bending child born in the next part of the cycle is the reincarnation. If Roku and Sozin had fought for a few more hours, the Avatar might have been some other air bender from another temple. The world is... huge and interconnected. Too complicated for things like destiny. All any of us should do... is the next right thing.” Aang gazed at little Izumi fondly. “You told be once that’s what honor is.”

“And I still believe that, but I did so much wrong...”

“You thought you were doing what was right, you didn’t know better, and that’s not your fault. You try to be better, to know better, all the time.” The smile was pointed at him now. “And Izumi is lucky to have someone like you to teach her about kindness and peacefulness.” 

“And if I can’t explain something... maybe her Uncle Aang can.”

“Absolutely, if you ever need help, I’ll be there.”

“Same.”

“Anymore gentle firebending to teach?”

“In the morning I’ll show you how to heat up bottles. And it’s not gentle, but we can practice molding flames into shapes. Izumi likes it when a tiny flame dragon flies around her crib.”

“Sounds great.” 

##################################

“Please let me watch, Daddy.” A five year old Izumi said, giving her best seal-dog eyes to Zuko, who was going to practice his firebending.

“No.” Today was for his experimental bending. He had a good control, but Izumi was little and her bending hadn’t came in yet.

“Please, I won’t get in the way...” She pouted before spotting Druk and grinning. “And Druk can protect me!” 

As if to prove her point, Druk made a squeaky roar in the back of his throat and scaled Izumi, crawling up her in a spiral, stopping when his front legs stood on her shoulder. He opened his wings around her and let a high pitched roar and small jet of flames. He was such a showboat.

“Druk is the size of gopher-dog, whats he going to do if I lose control of a wall of fire?” Druk made an insulted squeak that made Zuko smirk. He didn’t know how a dragon could be his child, but he saw a lot of himself in the dragon. It’s probably why the masters let him have him.

“You won’t, though, you’re so good!”

“Today you’re aunts and uncles are coming over, and they always come early, you should look out for them.”

“Daddy, please, I promise I’ll stay safe.” She was bringing out the trembling lip now and Zuko caved.

“Fine.” He smiled. “Stay at the edge of the courtyard with Druk. Maybe after we can see you can summon any flames.”

“Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!!!” The Fire Princesses jumped up and down, her silk robes bouncing. “And after we can read?”

“Yeah, you can read our abridged legends of the main Caldera island scroll, and I can read the report of crop yields from Shuhon island.”

“Yeah!” Izumi ran full speed to the edge of the training ring. Druk scurried off her when she sat down. Zuko sighed. He needed to get better at saying no to her. 

He stepped into the center of the large courtyard and took a deep breath. Start through the basics to warmup into the advanced stuff. He started by quickly running through with the Katas he learned as child. They were so deeply ingrained in his muscles that he could focus most of his energy into feeling the heat and fire of the sun absorbing into his body, and the his body creating energy with each breath. He transitioned into the advanced sets, these also deeply ingrained in his mind and body. As he speed through he felt his breathing level and his inner fire thrumming to the same beat as the sun. Unity with his element that he only ever felt when bending with this sort of fluidity and force. In the corner of his eye he say Izumi beaming at him. Time to pick up the show.

Because at this point, he wasn’t training, he was preforming for his daughter.

He switched to the Dragon forms, which were nearly second nature by now. Druk screeched and darted towards Zuko, taking flight with wings that were still a bit too big and awkward for his long body and what were very wide shoulders for a dragon. The young fledgling started his dance, flying around Zuko in a rough version of the dragons dance, something that was ingrained in the young ones DNA. Zuko ran through the Dancing Dragon forms a few more times, needing more practice and enjoying bending with Druk and the laughs of his daughter. The love for the two under his charge thrumming into the beat he was in with his fire, making it stronger.

Time to give Izumi a show. Taking a deep breath, Zuko let out large, colorful plume of dragon fire from his mouth, getting low down and spinning so he made a ring of fire. Druk chirped in excitement and flew in tight, excited circles overhead. Zuko then thrust himself into what Sokka had named break dancing, the ring expanding into a wild vortex the the young dragon above him took pleasure in dipping in and out of. He could hear a shout of excitement from Izumi over the roar of flames around him. It was then he broke into the sort of acrobatics he’d see Aang do, doing his best to channel the flames with the lightness of an air bender, the flames forming to his will, but growing wilder and larger all the same. Zuko quickly centered himself. To do want he wanted, he’d have to have focused and fast.

He bent the fire in a large stream infront of him, before swiftly dropping into an earth stance and thrusting out three swift punches and a kick before switching fluidly into firebending forms to control the fire. Out of stream of flames came four large, strong bursts, which were bent to look like swimming turtle-ducks, while the Zuko bent the stream into momentum around him. The fire princess erupted into cheers while the fire lord couldn’t believe he pulled that shit off. 

Now, the hard part, bending the large amount of fire into liquid fire. He found the best way to do it was with what amounted to aggressive waterbending, doing waterbending forms with the force of fire bending. The flames condensed and now the real fun began. Slowing down into regular waterbending forms, a stream of liquid fire moving fluidly, spinning like a ribbon around Zuko and gathering above him in a ball. With an upwards thrust of his fist the ball exploded into a column of fire into the sky and dispersed. Zuko let a deep sigh, feeling tiredness set in. He shouldn’t have shown of so much for his daughter. Working would be a pain later.

“Daddy, that was so cool!” She charged up him, barreling into his legs full speed and hugging him. 

He took it all back, it was all worth it. 

“That was so badass!” Came Sokka’s voice and the firebender snapped his gaze to the see the whole group walking out from the palace. Aang and little Bumi looked like they were going pop.

This was the worst. 

And he going to kill Sokka for swearing infront of Izumi. Zuko swore like a sailor after those years on the Wani, but he was able to keep a lid on it.

“What was that?”

“I’ve been experimenting with my bending a little over years, is all.” Zuko shrugged.

“A little? That was great!” Aang said animatedly, seemingly not noticing the fact Druk was investigating him crawling around his person, rummaging in his robes before going over to Sokka. Druk did this with all new people, it’s why he’s not allowed in meetings anymore. “Why haven’t you shown me this stuff?”

“Bending katas for each element are the way they are because it’s how to best control them, using others firms has consequences that make it tricky to handle and make it less useful in battle. Didn’t think there was a point.” 

“Too bad, I wanna learn!” 

“Daddy was so cool! Did you see the start? He was like-“ Izumi got into a very rough approximation of the first stance of the Dancing Dragon form and started to run through them as best as she could remember. Around the forth one she was focusing hard enough and close enough to the actual form that she produced a small lick of dark orange fire. “Woah!”

“Izumi!” Zuko grinned. “You bent fire!”

“I did! I did!” Izumi leaped up to hug her father, who embraced her warmly. 

“No fair, why does Izumi get her bending?” Bumi complained.

“Are we just going to ignore all that insane bending he did?” Sokka asked.

“You’re bending is in! I’ll contact the chefs, tonight we’ll have your favorite for desert.” Zuko held her tighter, ignoring Sokka.

“Spiced Moon Peach Pie!” Izumi squealed and Druk perched on top in Katara’s head, opening his wings and imitating the sound.

They could talk about his bending later. He was just glad his daughters bending was in and the people he’d come to think of as family were here to see it.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was primarily born from my need to have Zuko be as badass a bender as the other members of the Gaang who bend. Because I thought it’d be cool if finding out about real firebending made Zuko really come into himself as a bender after years of being sort of whatever at it. 
> 
> Remember, comments make my day, love details. Don’t care how old the story is, drop one. Do you have a favorite part/line? Tell me.
> 
> #LetZukoBeAGoodBender


End file.
